Last year I shared 15 of our favorite picture books. We still love those 15, but we’ve added a few new favorites in the last year:Papa’s Pastries — Every once in a while, we come across a children’s book that we all just love. And that we read over and over and over again — until almost everyone has it memorized word-for-word. Papa’s Pastries is one such book.

Not only does this book have beautiful pictures and an engaging story that our girls have been captivated by, but it introduces children to the reality that so many people around the world are much needier than us. In our affluent and wasteful culture, it’s hard to even imagine what it would be like to not know where our next meal will come from or to be so poor that no one in your family has shoes.

Cousin Ruth’s Tooth — This book has become one of our most-often-requested read-alouds. It’s so much fun to read and all the children love laughing at the funny pictures and silly poem.

Junior Discover’s Spending (Series) — The children have really enjoyed this whole childrens’ series by Dave Ramsey. It teachers practical money management skills in a very fun and engaging manner, plus it’s sparked all sorts of great discussions in our home about wise stewardship. Even Silas (2) loves these books.

Millions of Cats — This is our newest favorite picture book. It’s a fun story about lonely couple who wants a cat and ends up with hundreds, millions, billions, and trillions of cats.

What are your favorite children’s picture books? I’d love to hear as we’re always looking for new books to read!

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Here is a shameless plug for Mr. Greg’s newly published “When I’m Bigger”. It’s a great story about a little girl whose daddy encourages her to be anything she can dream–but also to be patient and loving and kind.

Mr. Greg is my husband, a stay at home dad for our girls, and he wrote this book for our daughter when she was in preschool. Just published this year.

My kids love the Jesus Bible Story Book. They also love “Just Going to the Dentist” by Mercer Mayer- especially my 4 year-old daughter. It made going to the dentist an adventure for her!
My 6 year old son really loves “Farmer McPeepers and his Missing Milk Cows.” I must admit I love this one, too. It’s really funny.

I am definitely going to check out Papa’s Pastries and the Dave Ramsey book.

Some of my boys favorites were, Hooway for wodney wat, Julius the baby of the world, The wolf who cried boy, and The three little wolves and the big bad pig. I enjoyed them as much as the boys did and miss them now that they are bigger!!

Here are some of our favorites:
The Snail and the Whale- this is a wonderful book about a small snail who wants to see the world, so he travels on the tail of a whale. Really cute illustrations and great message.
The Pout Pout Fish- my girls love this silly book and now when someone is pouting, we just say the lines from the book “He’s a pout pout fish with a pout pout face”
The Fish who cried wolf- a twist on the classic. This is a fun little story about a fish who tells lots of silly stories, and when he ends up telling the truth, his “school” of fish friends don’t believe him.
Brewster the Rooster- this poor rooster can’t “cock a doodle doo” at the right time, but his farm family can’t figure out why… until the end. Very cute book.
Right now we are reading aloud Mr. Poppers Penguins so that we can enjoy the movie. My 6 yr old is really enjoying it. I heard the movie was good AND it’s been Dove approved! 🙂

Many of the Jan Brett books are a favorite in our household…The Hat, The Mitten, Ginger Bread Baby, etc. They are all so beautifully illustrated! For me the best part was going to Jan Brett’s site online and printing activities to go with the books.

I just finished Little House in the Big Woods with my 4yo daughter and she loved it. We’ve started Little House on the Prairie. She also loves the Llama Llama books and Shel Silverstein. My son, 1yo, loves to **eat** books!!! 🙂

Crystal,
We love your suggestions–and have ready many of them, but I was wondering if your oldest daughter has started reading chapter books yet? We’re right on the verge of starting chapter books and I was looking for some ideas.
Thanks so much!
Esther

Thanks so much for the suggestions! I had completely forgottten about the American Girls books. We’ve been reading our way through the Little House Series and Charlotte’s Web is on the bookshelf waiting a turn. I think I’m going to introduce her to The Magic Treehouse books.
Thanks,
Esther

Thanks! We’re always looking for new book ideas. As part of our libraries summer reading program, we’re reading (almost completed)
45 books for the first time. Has kept me on my toes looking for good books!
A couple of favorites: You Look Ridiculous (Said the Rhinoceros to the Hippopotamus) by Bernard Waber, and Stone Soup by Marcia Brown

My 4 year old daughter loves the Pinkalicious books by Victoria & Elizabeth Kann and the Olivia books by Jodie Shepard. My 6 year old loves books about Dinosaurs or Tigers. He has read them all from the library! His book that was his most favorite of all time is I wish I had Duck Feet by Dr. Seuss.

You Are Special by Max Lucado (can’t say enough about this one; it teaches that what God thinks matters over what “they” think) Sadly, we didn’t like the video that came out later, but the picture book is a treasure.http://tiny.cc/4jamx

I love, love, love the tale of “The Three Trees.” It is such a moving and powerful story about how the Lord works in unexpected ways in our lives (each tree winds up playing a role in the life and ministry of Jesus Christ.)

Millions of Cats really, really upset me as a kid, because the cats tore each other apart at the end. Not sure if that’s a common reaction or not, but I check books for that sort of outcome before reading them to my son. We like Janet and Allen Ahlberg books, Peepo for little ones, and The Jolly Postman for beginning readers. Not sure how easy they’d be to get, since they’re British, but I have found used copies online. Peepo is a book with cutout pages, about a WWII era family, and the Jolly Postman has little letters for fairytale characters.

My very favorite bedtime book is All The Places To Love – a feel good book written from the prospective of a little boy growing up on a farm, his sister being born on the farm, just as he was, and sharing ‘all the places to love’ on the farm with her. Def a warm/fuzzy bk 🙂

We just found Goodnight, Goodnight Construction Site and The Circus Ship — both fantastic! The Circus Ship has amazing illustrations, and they are both written in rhyme. We took The Circus Ship with us yesterday when the kiddos and I went to visit my grandmother (who is recuperating from surgery in a nursing home). She has been so down in the dumps there, and mentioned last week how many great children’s books there are. She, too, LOVED The Circus Ship, and read it to herself again after we all read it out loud together. It made her smile, something we don’t see often enough. 🙂

bernard weber’s books are good, but i’m especially partial to ‘ira sleeps over’ because it was the first one i read by this author. actually, i read it as an adult, because i think jim trelease was on focus on the family talking about good books for kids and he read part of that book and stopped in the middle. i had to find it and read it just to see how it ended. great book!!! we also like ‘click, clack, moo- cows that type’- very funny to find out the animals’ thoughts and how they ‘talk’ to the farmer.

My kids are 6 and 3. They LOVE Skippyjon Jones, the Siamese cat who thinks he’s a chihuahua. And my 6-year-old’s favorite Dr. Seuss book is If I Ran The Circus. When I finish reading that one aloud I feel like someone should give me a prize.

Thank you so much for your recommendations! We picked most of these books up from the library. Our boys couldn’t stop giggling at Millions of Cats. And Papa’s Pastries is one of the most beautiful children’s stories I’ve ever read. I was fighting back tears the whole time. Thanks again!